From the Archives ...

Sea run trout tactics – Craig Vertigan

During the trout off-season I tend to spend a bit of time chasing bream, to continue getting a fishing fix, and spend time tying flies and dreaming about the trout season to come. It’s a time to spend doing tackle maintenance, stocking up on lures and dreaming up new challenges and goals for the trout season ahead. When the new season comes around I usually spend the first few months targeting sea runners. Sea run trout are simply brown trout that spend much of there lives out to sea and come in to the estuaries for spawning and to feed on whitebait and the other small endemic fishes that spawn in late winter through spring. Mixed in with the silvery sea runners you can also expect to catch resident fish that have the typical dark colours of a normal brown trout as well as atlantic salmon in some of our estuaries that are located near salmon farm pens. Living in Hobart it is quick and easy to do a trip on the Huon or Derwent and is a more comfortable proposition compared to a trip up to the highlands with snow and freezing winds to contend with.

Over the weekend of 4 and 5 August, the 2018-19 angling season took off with a bang! Thousands of anglers around the state tried their luck with some fantastic fish caught. Our Officers were out with five teams patrolling 46 waters right across the state. We inspected 699 angling licences, 546 brown trout and 195 rainbow trout.

Pimping Colours

Winter is a great time for tackle tinkering… Reel maintenance, fly tying, replacing the rusty trebles on lures, or even pimping up your soft plastics for the coming season! As Starlo explains, customising the colours of your plastics isn’t hard. It’s also great fun, and can be highly effective!

In this occasional series of features, I want to look at the fascinating subject of customising soft plastic lures. In my opinion, this is an avenue of tackle tinkering that far too few anglers explore. Most buy their supplies of soft plastics from the tackle store and seem to assume that these versatile lures must be used in exactly the form they were packaged in by the manufacturer. In reality, nothing could be further from the truth!

Perhaps this notion that the maker knows best and that anglers shouldn’t “fiddle” with their products is a carry over from the world of hard-bodied luring. Beyond perhaps upgrading or replacing hooks and rings, very few anglers actively modify hard-bodied lures made from metal, plastic or timber. There are exceptions to this rule, of course. For example, some switched-on trout chasers have been adding bright, pea-sized red spots with lighter-coloured halos to their minnows, plugs and spoons for years, especially when fishing the pre-spawn and post-spawn runs of trout in autumn and spring. I first helped to popularize this custom colouration more than three decades ago, and gave it the name “spotted dog” in my writings. That label has stuck, and has even been picked up by some commercial lure makers. But I certainly can’t claim to have “invented” the actual spotted dog pattern. In fact, it was first shown to me by a very canny Finnish trout fisher named Erkki Norell in the early 1980s, and it had been used in his home country (with great success) for at least a generation or two prior to him telling me about it. There is very little under the sun that is truly “new”!

All waters outside the East Coast Stock Rebuilding Zone (ECSRZ) - open from Saturday, 3 November 2018East Coast Stock Rebuilding Zone - open from Saturday, 8 December 2018The need to rebuild stocks of rock lobster on the East Coast has led to the decision to delay the opening date for the recreational season in the ECSRZ. Other areas in the Eastern Region will now open at the same time as the Western Region.

There are no changes to recreational catch limits.

The commercial rock lobster season has also been delayed, opening on 15 November in all waters outside the ECSRZ and on 11 December in the ECSRZ.

Put some warm clothes on and embrace the world. Winter fishing can be great.

Winter Great Lake

Great Lake is one of a handful of year round trout fishery in Tasmania that offers the die hard trout fisher a place to wet a line in fresh water.

During the months of June and July, the brown trout that have finished spawning are looking to regain condition quickly. The Great Lake Galaxia will be high on their opportunistic diet at this time, making lure and streamer fly fishing a viable option. Shore based fishing is a good bet at this time of year with Browns hunting Galaxia along the rocky shorelines. They also take advantage of the abundance of Stick Caddis over the weed beds and muddy bays. Fur fl ies, Woolly Buggers and streamers are great fl ies to use at this time of year.

Presented from Issue 116, June 2015Cold weather can strike anytime in Tasmania and a lot of people complain about the cold constantly. Anglers are no different, but, like bush walkers it just means more appropriate clothes. And if there is a huge winter frost you know the day will be calm and bright and a joy to experience. So while it can be wild, cold, bitter and wet look out for approaching high pressure systems, plan a trip, and rejoice in the short calm winter days. The fishing can be grand.

Two inshore fish that are fun to catch over Winter are garfish and flounder. Both are pretty reliable fisheries, but preparation is the key. In fact it is the key to catching most fish.

With the Mersey, Meander & Leven rivers still running very high and a day without rain plus a temperature of 15 degrees had me heading off to the tannin water for a spin session after a nine day lay off. Until the larger rivers drop to a safe wading level I have no choice but to fish the little tannin water again. There was only one problem today and that was the wind, it was gusting at 50/60 kph from the North West so it wasn't going to be all that great for spin fishing. When I arrived I found the stream was running much higher than my last trip but still good enough to hop in and try and catch a trout or two. Like the past couple of river trips I started with the Mepps #0 Aglia tiger fluoro, it was on the forth cast when I picked up my first little wild brown trout in small flat water under some overhanging tea trees.

More rain forecast again later in the day saw me head off to fish the tannin water again today in what was a much milder day than what we've previously been having. The reason I decided to fish the small stream was because the larger rivers are still running very cold & high, this little stream will be a little warmer than them. I arrived to see the level was lower than my last trip here back on 22nd August when it was cold and running at a medium height. I had a one & a half kilometre walk to where I started off the spin session & the lure of choice was a Mepps #0 Aglia tiger fluoro blade spinner.

With the Meander River level dropping to 73 cms in the Meander area I decided to head over there for a spin session. Even at 73 cms it's still a little on the high side and until it drops to 65 cms the water is still quite unsafe to wade in several areas along the river. Any way after arriving and then having a forty minute walk to the river I was finally in it flicking a little Mepps #00 gold aglia around in the river. The water temp here was sitting on six degrees which is still on the cold side for trout, hopefully things will turn around over the following weeks ahead. It only took ten minutes before I had a follow from a small brown before it made a dash at the spinner, it had one go at the gold aglia and missed taking it then darted off.

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Current River Heights for the Northern Rivers

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From the Archives ... (last chance)

Suggestions for Early Season Waters

by Sarah Graham

Many anglers are preparing for the opening of the new angling season on Saturday 7 August and it's shaping up to be another good one with the fishery in excellent health as a result of last year’s drought breaking rains. There are many great fishing locations around the State from which to choose for the opening weekend and early season fishing but here are a few suggestions.